Workers Vote Today On Unionizing

MERIDEN — Hundreds of workers today will decide if one of the city's biggest businesses will unionize.

The vote is the culmination of six months of campaigning for union organizers in Walbro Corp., a company that supplies fuel systems to the automobile industry.

About 500 people work at the Hicks Street and Gracey Avenue factory sites. Of those, 340 nonsalaried employees will vote on whether the plant should join the United Auto Workers Union.

``We want fair and equal pay,'' said union organizer Tom Torelli.

Though Torelli expects a clear victory for the UAW -- he bases his expectation on a petition in which more than 200 workers said they would vote the union in -- plant manager Kristen Champion has another notion.

She did not return phone messages Tuesday, but issued a written statement about the impending vote.

``A majority of employees have strongly stated that we should work together rather than have an outsider like the UAW involved,'' she wrote. ``I look forward to working closely with the employees after this union has been defeated.''

Both sides agree that the campaign, for and against, has caused intense friction in the workplace and has led to deeply divided factions.

``It's getting kind of ugly around here,'' said Margaret Dicorcia, a salaried worker who does not support UAW.

Torelli, too, acknowledged a pressure-filled atmosphere. He said that either way the vote goes, bad feelings may take some time to dissipate.

The vote will take place at both Walbro sites between 5:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., then again between 1:30 p.m. and 4:15 p.m. Torelli said he expects the labor relations board, the body overseeing the election, to tally the votes by 5 p.m.